This is a very particular blog post I'm writing today. As I'm having a bit of trouble starting, as you might guess, I'm going to be direct: So, in just a few words, I'm not going four ways, I'm going straight to the end, I will speak to you frankly, and frankly, I'm going to take a while to speak to you frankly1.

After many marvelous years spent working at/for/with 4D, I'm setting off to new horizons. And when I say that I'm setting off, it's not really a metaphor: Here I am (almost, in two or three months, rather) in New York.

New York! No kidding! It's the dream this couple has had to make real, so we're going through with it!

At first, I had the idea to name this article "If you seek me, you will get me." But it was a bit too easy. And, after all, not that funny (and I wanted a funny title). I looked at something else and found "Seek me, get me". But… removing a couple of words doesn't make it any more funny. That's why I finally decided upon a title that is not funny. It was a painful decision, but somebody had to make it and I was alone in my head at this time. So, "Query and Find" came up to my mind. Hmm. No. Still not working. Even worse: One could think I'm going to talk about the database engine, while I'm actually talking about the "Find in Design" functionality.

At the end, "Seek and you shall find," even it does not make you laugh, makes the subject crystal clear and you immediately know what this article will be talking about1.

And here we are! 4D v13 was released on February 14. The virtual boxes pictures are pretty cool, aren't they?

This version comes with incredible(1) new functionalities that you can discover - or have already discovered - on the web site and/or in the upgrade documentation, or during our last webinar about 4D v13.

We’ve been in San Jose since last week. Just in case you didn’t read the last blog post, I’ll summarize: Last week, Jérôme and I travelled to San Jose, California, to work with the US team on 4D Summit 2011(1).

I’ll start with a question: Who's never wanted, as a kid, to be able to write on the walls without being grounded(2)? Well, here in 4D’s San Jose office, let me tell you, there is a full whiteboard painted wall! Incredible. With as many markers in as many different colors you want. You can write, draw, erase, and do it again and again. I find this to be awesomely-incredibly-super-cool. As soon as I saw it, I used it to write the flow of the keynotes. In this picture, I’m with Tom and Jérôme.

New transatlantic travel: I’m flying to the US. San Jose, California, to be exact. I will work with the US team to prepare the 4D Summit and Wakanday! This happens from October 12 to 15 in Boston, and we are going to finish what needs to be done: Tune the keynote demos, the keynote slides, the keynote announcements. In short, we’ll be working on the keynotes.

This year, I’m not traveling alone, Jérôme is with me. Jérôme is a colleague of mine, the 4D v13 project manager. Suffice to say that guy is important. A 4D developer from the start. He joined the company years ago.

Today, we will talk about a new 4D Pop module, shipped with 4D v12.1: KeepIt.

Please note the first sentence has no question mark: “You know 4D Pop – period”. This is on purpose: All 4D developers know what 4D Pop is. I am aware that writing this could be inappropriate: If a reader does not know 4D Pop, he/she could then feel a bit uncomfortable. But this can’t happen: All 4D developers know what 4D Pop is. QED.

A brief reminder: 4D Pop was first developed with version 6.0 of 4D. It has since been regularly updated until its developer joined 4D (the company). Since then, 4D Pop has been regularly updated.

Well, in both cases, before and after the hiring, 4D Pop has been regularly updated.

Last week, 4D developers from the Netherlands gathered for the Dutch Devcon, hosted in... Paris! Well, more precisely in Clichy, at our office. 4D and Inventive (our Dutch distributor) organized the trip for developers.

Those enthusiastic developers learned about what's already here (v12/12.1), what's coming soon (Wakanda), and what's in the future (v13, end of 2011). Instead of writing a long blog about it - which would've been very interesting, but too long - so we've made a video blog, shot from a distance so you can't tell that I'm not clean shaven.

A new flavor of 4D Server has shipped with version 4D v12.1: 4D Server v12 64-bit for Windows. Able to allocate more than 4 GB of RAM (the limit for 32-bit applications), 4D Server is more scalable (that is, “able to support the required quality of service as the system load increases” - per Wiktionnary). It supports more simultaneous connections, allocates a much bigger cache, and can handle more pictures, BLOBs, etc.

Let’s take a simple example about scalability and 4D Server v12 64-bit: A 32-bit 4D Server application runs perfectly with 40 connected users and a data file of 1 to 2 gigabytes. The needs increase. It is now asked to connect 200 users and the data file grows up to 8 GB. In this situation, we move to 4D Server v12 64-bit, on a machine with 16 GB of RAM, and we increase the cache size to 8 GB. The application will then behave the same as in its previous context (32-bit/40 users/2GB of data).

After the other day's country stroll in the Method Editor, let’s spend a few minutes on the ListBoxes. Because among other new major (1) features of 4D v12, ListBox improvements are definitely major-major (1 too).

This morning, as on most days, I was taking a stroll through my code. A little walk, cool, restful – kind of a country walk. The fact is: I’m back from vacation and during the week off, I successfully managed to not launch 4D for three straight days. After such a big break, any doctor will agree: You must go back into work slowly. Very slooooooooowly.

While modifying the code for a method, I was thinking that, after all, 4D v12’s new Method Edtior really rocks.

If you attended one of 4D v12 DevCons in 2009 or 2010, you already know (and if not, you’ll learn right now): The interface has not changed, but the engine has been totally rewritten. There are so much new features in the 4D v12 Method Editor that I can’t just build a Top 10 list of the features I prefer. Not even a Top 5 or a Top 3! From time to time, I change my mind. Basically, as soon as I’m using a new feature, I like it the best.